Path 2

Path 2

Nuclear Waste Makes Haste

July 30, 2002

What I find most shocking about the Yucca Mountain Project is that DOE [the Department of Energy] has no plan to transport spent nuclear fuel to its proposed repository. Secretary Abraham testified last week that the DOE is “just beginning to formulate its preliminary thoughts about a transportation plan.” —Jim Hall, former chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, in testimony before the U.S. Senate, May 23, 2002

Number of truckloads of high-level radioactive waste to be shipped through the United States if all the waste is moved by truck over 38 years: 105,685

Number of railcars of high-level radioactive waste to be shipped through the United States if all the waste is moved by rail over 38 years: 18,243

Shipments of spent nuclear fuel within the United States over the last 30 years: 3025

Number of regulatory incidents involving those American shipments: 47

Number of accidents: 6

Number of resulting deaths: 1

Estimated number of shipments of spent nuclear fuel in the first year of the project: 2855

Number of truck accidents the Department of Energy predicts will occur over the 38-year life of the project: 66

Number of truck accidents other experts estimate will occur over the next 40 years: 129

Minutes it takes unshielded radiation from a fuel rod to kill the average person within three feet: 2

Number of rail accidents the Department of Energy predicts will occur over the 38-year life of the project: 10

Number of rail accidents other experts estimate will occur over the next 40 years: 440

Immediate deaths predicted should a train accident occur involving nuclear waste, if that accident is commensurate to last year’s Baltimore tunnel fire, in which a train carrying hazmats derailed, exploded, and burned for four days: 250

Estimated cancer deaths in the 50 years following such an accident: 4000 to 28,000

Estimated clean-up costs of such an accident: $10 billion to $14 billion

Number of radiation-induced deaths the Department of Energy estimated would occur in a worst-case-scenario rail accident

in its draft Environmental Impacts of Transportation Statement: 31

Number of radiation-induced deaths the Department of Energy estimated would occur in a worst-case-scenario rail accident

in its final Environmental Impacts of Transportation Statement: 5

Number of train accidents throughout the United States in last 12 years: 88,000

Number of those trains carrying hazardous waste: 14,700

Number of accidents resulting in the release of hazardous materials: 448

Number of defects in tracks and signal equipment cited in 2001 by the Federal Railroad Administration: 108,000